[horsemadmummy]

Strange question but as we have three dogs hubby is reluctant to get me another and my little flock is growing!!!  question we have a very biddable weimaraner bitch who refuses to carry anything in her mouth (so hubby plan of hunting dog failed) she seems highly trainable so I wondered if she might be able to be trained to help move the sheep.

She doesn't seem to want to eat them when I take her into the paddock so thought we might give it a go but I have no idea where to start.

Are there any training courses that I could send her on to begin with or is this wishful thinking?

Any replies/advice appreciated as I dont want to waste time/money or stress the sheep

[MarvinH]

There is a good section on sheepdog training in - can't think of book name but have a look at the signature link on the bottom of VSS posts it should say there.

[FiB]

Hiya - good artcle in Coutry smallholding magazine this month which advocates dogless shepherding for smallholders, which I am surprised to say has worked really well for me. I was a bit worried when I first got them how I would manage them without a dog - but that bit has been easy (using the faithful bucket with a few nuts in it)!!!  Only thing I cant do is separate one off - for me its all in, then get the one I need.  But with only 8 acres of pasture and 18 sheep thats no bother.  They will even follow the bucket through greener fields, across streams, through gates.  Good luck, Fi

[smithycraft]

Over the years we have tried, not very hard, to train our various German Shepherds to round up our flock.  We've never had much success, they all do the same thing.  Instead of gathering up the sheep into a nice bunch, they run straight into the middle, split them up and then take off after one of them.

It was easier to train the sheep to go where we wanted them!

I agree with FiB, a bucket works wonders.

Sharon

[plumseverywhere]

OK, this is really embarrassing but ours come to name    well sort of name, I shout "Nimble, Tallulah ....Boyyyyyyyyyyys....!" really loudly and all 5 come legging it over to the hurdled off area containing a trough which then gets some handfuls of nuts in.

Friends and neighbours take the mickey but it means I don't have to walk for 10 minutes to find them and the noise of my voice (in suitably shrill animal calling tone) bounces off the hill in front and behind me 

[in the hills]

Bucket has worked well with my Soay so far. They are flighty little things but will come running as soon as they hear me call, even from a couple of paddocks away.

Have occasionally sat my retriever and told him to stay so that sheep avoid him and it helps to guide them to where I want them. Otherwise he is pretty useless! Ignores the sheep completely ..... would a gundog have the instinct to round the sheep ? Not sure if you can teach that 

[Rosemary]

Bucket has always worked well for us.

[Remy]

Another vote here for the bucket  .  Mine only have to see me carrying anything that remotely resembles a bucket and all come haring over, even the Herdwick who is very flighty and wary.  You do sometimes get the odd one or two who don't go where you want them but usually if there's two of you it's easy enough to round them up (having said that last year I had one particular contrary lamb who wouldn't follow the others and managed to persuade a few to go off with him!  I spent quite some time running over five acres trying to head them off lol!).

I have two Australian Cattle Dogs who love nothing better than to chase sheep/horses but not to where you want them so they stay firmly shut indoors during any herding procedures 

[horsemadmummy]

thanks for replies looks like its a no to that idea then!  and I do hate having anything at home that does nothing to pay for its keep!  i might just put her on a training line and see if it looks like she might have a chance she has got the away command and you only have to put a finger up and she sits!  no harm in taking a look.  would even be prepared to send her to a kennels for an intial week if I could find someone.

[humphreymctush]

Before I got my collie (which I didnt even bother to train) I used a lurcher to do 2 useful things. One was to sit and stay in a spot to cover an escape route and the other was to chase any sheep that broke away from the flock and scare them enough to want to return so that I could carry on herding them. As far as rounding sheep up in the true sense he was (and still is) absolutely clueless. The collie just does it naturally and now the sheep know where to go so its all stress free.

[horsemadmummy]

that sounds like a plan then lets see if she will sit and stay while sheep are moving around her it would be so helpful if she could just be my other pair of hands as i am on my own where sheep are concerned.

[doganjo]

thanks for replies looks like its a no to that idea then!  and I do hate having anything at home that does nothing to pay for its keep!  i might just put her on a training line and see if it looks like she might have a chance she has got the away command and you only have to put a finger up and she sits!  no harm in taking a look.  would even be prepared to send her to a kennels for an intial week if I could find someone.

I wouldn't cast the idea out - my young Brittany and I went on a fun day for our breed to my friends' sheep farm in the borders, and Malcolm said he'd take any into the field who wanted to test their dogs on sheep.  When I took Bobby in his ears went up and I was sure he was going to chase them, but Malcolm took the lead off me and let him go.  The sheep scattered as they would with a strange dog - and Bobby started to run - I was yelling at him, but Malcolm told me to shut up and watch - he was rounding them up.  Any stragglers he took a wide berth and when they headed into the bunch he  stopped stock still.  I couldn't believe my eyes.  However, we needed him to respect sheep rather than herd him so Malcolm did some aversion training techniques instead.  But he certainly uses a couple of his own Brittanys to herd the sheep - these are HPRs same as your Weimaraner. Have a go, and good luck.

[horsemadmummy]

the boarders are a long way from here does malcom train dogs?  it seems to me newbie dog and newbie handler might be disaster which is why i was thinking if i could find a trainer so she could get the basics that would work better.  problem is how do you find a trainer?

[HelenVF]

I have used my springer as a stop when trying to shift sheep.  Put her in the sit and she turned the sheep.

As an aside, I'm helping a friend train his weimaraner who won't retrieve.  Started off trying to get her to retrieve but she is such a sensitive/nervous dog, we are just working on her hunting and confidence issues.  He's now got a working cocker which I'm helping, and I have to say a LOT easier than the weim! lol.  Still, she's teaching me a LOT about training dogs.

Helen

[horsemadmummy]

weis are more human than us.  more willful than a naughty child but once they are yours they are yours for life.  she loves to be outside which is why i want to give her the chance to work in some way